Thinking about making a step into leadership? Hear from someone who has been there…

A winding career path

The opportunity for Becca to expand her perspective beyond the four walls of the classroom was an important attraction that put her on the path towards leadership. ‘You get to see a more rounded picture of what schools can do,’ she says. ‘You might not be day-to-day in your own classroom as much, but you’re still in many other classrooms and you get to see the holistic version of what schools are about, engaging with all the different stakeholders.’

For Becca, this love of new perspectives and challenges was a major factor. Her career in education has certainly seen many exciting twists and turns. She trained through Teach First and began her teaching career as a state school maths teacher, working up towards department head. Then she moved to a start up school in Oldham (the Oasis Academy), and later to UWC Atlantic, a private international school in Wales where she taught IB.

‘I had always been excited by the idea of living and working abroad,’ she says. So when an opportunity arose to teach maths at a British Council School in Madrid, she took it. Later she taught at a state lycée in France, founded in the 1960s as an international option for the families of physicists working at the Cern particle accelerator.

What did she gain from these international experiences? ‘Open-mindedness of collaboration,’ she smiles.

‘The schools I worked in were all about bringing different national pedagogical strategies together. For example, in the French system, it was interesting to see how teaching didn’t have such a pastoral emphasis. But our system in the UK is beneficial because the teacher takes on that role, which makes it easier to teach students.’

How to be an effective leader

These different perspectives taught Becca to appreciate the big picture alongside the detail, a crucial skill for the best educational leaders. And when she took up her deputy headship, she continued to learn. ‘My advice would be don’t jump in with two feet about effecting change until you’ve seen it day to day and seen what the priorities need to be.’  Striking a balance between supporting the rest of the senior leadership team and being reactive is critical, she says. ‘You want to make changes, but it has to be based on evidence as you gather it, not rushing into things.’

Alongside patience and open-mindedness, learning to manage and depend on a team is invaluable, as Becca has learned through the pastoral side.

‘I’ve learned that delegation is very important as a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) because there are so many enquiries. Because it was the first time I was doing it, I initially thought I should be doing everything. That has been a big learning curve.’

As for how to build up such a strong team, Becca has simple but effective advice: make the time to talk to people. ‘You need to sit down with people you don’t know and have those one-to-one conversations.’ An effective leader should know something about everyone they work with, so that each member of the team is valued and listened to. This was especially important for Becca, coming from outside the school. ‘As a leader, you have to listen, and then take it on board. It’s a way in with staff because they feel they’re being listened to.’

Managing the demands of leadership

If there are few jobs more rewarding than teaching, there are also few jobs that are more exhausting. This is even more the case at a senior leadership level. So when it comes to the day-to-day challenges of the role, Becca, who is also the primary carer for her young child, is under no illusions. ‘It’s tough, and in my last role I questioned it every day,’ she admits. As a rule, she carved out at least two hours to spend with her child between the end of the school day and sitting down with the laptop for some evening work.

‘Those two hours were sacrosanct and I forced myself to do a mental switch-off. One of my headteacher friends says: “If it’s not on fire, don’t take it home.” I don’t know if it’s when you’re a parent—guilty for not doing a good enough job, and being a good enough parent. I need to switch off the guilt.’

Looking to the future

Becca has come a long way on her leadership journey, but it is not over yet—far from it. So, what next? ‘I would like to think that I see myself as a head one day, but I’m certainly not holding myself to ransom with that as a target.’

As Becca recognises, leaders are not born fully formed, but are nurtured and grown. She looks forward to seeking out new challenges in the future, developing her skills and broadening her perspectives even further as she goes. She’s just started a role as lecturer at the University of Bangor’s school of education, another example of one of the many paths that a career in school leadership can take you.

Will Becca be returning to walking the school corridors anytime soon? It sounds highly likely. ‘I thrive from the relationship I build with students and staff,’ she reflects. ‘There’s nothing like the school environment for having the best stories at the end of the day.’

To find out more about progressing in school leadership, you can explore the NPQs we offer here